EU vote on Turkish membership has no value: Erdoğan

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan said on Wednesday that a vote by the European Parliament on whether to halt EU membership talks with Ankara "has no value in our eyes" and again accused Europe of siding with terrorist organizations.

"We have made clear time and time again that we take care of European values more than many EU countries, but we could not see concrete support from Western friends ... None of the promises were kept," he said, while addressing the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) conference in Istanbul.

"There will be a meeting at the European Parliament tomorrow, and they will vote on EU talks with Turkey; whatever the result, this vote has no value in our eyes.

Leading members of the European Parliament on Tuesday called for a halt to membership talks with Turkey, as Turkey has been fighting against the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) following the coup bid by dismissing tens of thousands of state employees over their link with FETÖ terrorist organization.

A violent coup bid was witnessed this past July 15, mostly in Turkey's cities, when the terrorist group headed by Fetullah Gülen attempted to topple the democratically-elected government.

Turkey's government says the deadly coup plot, which martyred more than 240 people and injured more than 2,000 others, was organized by FETÖ members.

Turkey's Erdoğan also said that Muslims are being targeted all around the world, particularly in Europe more and more, day by day.

"They set fire to the mosques, attack the Muslim communities more often now. The assailants find the courage to do so. Now, we should raise our voice against these brutal attacks," he said.

“If we don't raise our voice against the tyrants, they will continue to accuse us of being dictators,” he added.

"The U.S. is saying Kuwait Turk and Kuwait foundations support terrorism; however, this is wrong," Erdoğan counseled, adding that Islam doesn't raise terrorists.

Turkish President Erdoğan who also touched upon the indecisive attitude of European countries against terrorist organizations, said that Europe is harboring the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorists.

"On one hand you declare the PKK a terrorist organization, on the other you have terrorists roaming freely in the streets of Brussels. What kind of sincerity is this?," he scolded

Erdoğan also expressed his anger towards the presence of protesters sympathetic to the PKK near an EU-Turkey summit in Brussels in March, which he said at the time demonstrated the EU's "two-faced" behavior.